


Home Is Where Your Drift Partner Is

by BitterChocolateStars



Series: Linked [4]
Category: Pacific Rim (2013)
Genre: Ace!Newt, Anxiety, Asexuality, Babies, Depression, Newt not so secretly loves kids, Nightmares, Pregnancy, add as i go, and is super excited, figuring out house rules, hermann might think you got kidnapped, it is not okay to go out past midnight and not leave a note
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-05-17
Updated: 2014-06-29
Packaged: 2018-01-25 09:49:02
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 4
Words: 4,431
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1644401
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/BitterChocolateStars/pseuds/BitterChocolateStars
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>He takes his first step into Hermann's house with its white picket fence and bright yellow paint and beautiful yard, like something strait out of a cliche feel good flick. </p>
<p>---------------</p>
<p>Newt is offered a home. Vanessa's offered a challenge. And Hermann is offered something he'd wanted from the beginning.</p>
<p>Family is what you make it. If that family is a little strange, a little chaotic, a little hard to handle sometimes, that's no one business but your own.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Welcome Home

When he takes his first step into Hermann's house with its white picket fence and bright yellow paint and beautiful yard, like something strait out of a cliche feel good flick, the first thing to greet him is solid fingers pinching his earlobe and pulling forward.

"What the hell!" he cries stumbling forward toward the woman in the entry way. Hand hovering over his ear as he's dragged forward.

"You really are a ridiculous man Newton Geiszler!" Vanessa hisses pulling him until he's close enough to engulf in her arms.

"Uh..." Newt flounders. Staring back at Hermann who merely shrugs and moves passed them to take his bag to the laundry room. Leaving Newton at the mercy of his wife.

"I missed you, you little bastard, don't you ever scare us like that again." She sniffles and Newt knows she's begun to cry. Can hear it in her voice and it makes him panic.

"H-hey don't cry, don't cry, please, i don't know what to do if you cry, should i get Hermann, i'll get Hermann, he handles crying better, which is weird but also true, you would know actually i don't know why i'm telling you that-"

"Shut up and hug me." She demands, cutting off his ramblings. He cautiously wraps his arms around her, unsure about the whole thing. It was strange hugging the woman he's only ever met in person once. Also strange that she is now crying all over his shoulder. He rubs her back slowly. Hermann wanders back into the room with a raised brow as he stares at the two. Newton mouths 'Help me' at him seriously, only to have Hermann smirk at him and edge toward the kitchen.

"Tea?" He asks before disappearing. Vanessa releases her hold and steps back to latch onto his arms and drag him to the kitchen table. He takes a seat at the glossy oak table and looks around the brightly colored kitchen. it doesn't seem like Hermann, he guesses Vanessa was in charge of decorating while Hermann was working with the PPDC. Everything brightly colored in vivid yellows and blues and greens. There seemed to be a running theme of sunflowers through out. Vanessa sits across from him and looks him over critically. he tries not to look at her, instead choosing to watch Hermann put a kettle on the stove and putter around for the tea as he picks at the badges still wrapped around his wrists.

"How are you?" she asked snapping his attention to her.

"Better." he says, and its true, he has felt better. there's no longer the pulling in the back of his head. The migraine that had tried to put up permanent residence is gone. All in the few hours between Hermann showing up in the hospital to now. "This is a little weird though." He admits. It is, because he never imagined sticking around with Hermann if the world didn't end, never imagined the link that bound them, never thought he'd actually drift with anyone or anything. Never noticed the deep running love he felt until the drift. Now it was there and it wasn't going away, probably not for a while and that more than anything else about this fucked up situation kinda freaked him out.

"Well get used to it because we aren't letting you out of our sight for a while." Hermann says and that makes Newt frown. Hermann leans against the counter.

"I'm not a child." He says defensively. "I can take care of myself." He can, he's an adult, just because he's had a hard time adjusting to the weird link in the back of his head doesn't mean he can't take care of himself.

"No your not, i didn't say you were. but you need-" Hermann stops. Cutting himself off with a pained sigh.

"I need what Hermann?" He snaps, glaring over at his friend now. fists clenched together in his lap.

"You need to tell us when something is wrong!" He snaps back, hands gripping the counters edge. He's still shaken from the whole reason Newt had to be drug back with him. Newt knows this, can feel it like a spark in the back of his head; in his Hermann mind space.

"It's not like i saw this outcome!"

"That's just it! You never see any outcome before it has your arm glued inside Kaiju innards, or acid eating through your clothes, or seizing on the floor because you thought Drifting with an inter-dimensional alien was a good plan!"

"And it was! We're alive man! The world is still kicking!" Newt shouts, standing now, leaning over with his hands splayed firmly to the table top.

"You could have killed yourself!"

"But i didn't!"

"You-"

"Enough!" Vanessa yells standing from her own chair and glaring at them both. "Yelling at one another isn't going to change the past!"

Both men stood staring at her panting, unsure what to say now.

"Sorry." Newt mumbles finally, staring down at the table where his fists are curled. From his left he hears Hermann sigh quietly. A sign that he's giving up the argument, a sigh Newt knows well from long nights in the lab and for some reason it makes Newt feel a little better.

"I should not have implied you couldn't take care of yourself." Hermann says before making his way from the kitchen. Leaving Vanessa and him alone.

"We were so scared." Vanessa says quietly. "when we tried to call and you weren't answering us. Then we get a call from a hospital and... he was so panicked he nearly forgot to put on shoes."

Newt huffs out a laugh, frowning to himself. "I don't know what happened. I guess i just kinda lost it, everything was so jumbled up in my head... I really didn't want our first conversation face to face again to be this fucked up."

He senses Vanessa round the table. Gently taking his hand in hers she leads him from the table. "Come on, let me show you your room."  
they climb the polished stairs in the hall to the second floor. She stopped next to the first door on the right. "Here it is." She says with a flourish as she pushes the door open.

His room indeed, the walls are a dark green color, one he's always found soothing, something Hermann would no doubt know from their shared memories. There was dark blue blankets on the large bed against the left wall. On the right are a set of dressers next to a large closet. He walks slowly into the room taking in the framed pictures of himself and Hermann sitting on the nightstand.

"Where did you get these?" He asks Vanessa.

"Mako sent them to Hermann, she had an entire box full of undeveloped pictures. She didn't send you any?"

"Uh no, well i may have forgotten to give her my new address." He answers distractedly. The first one is of their first time meeting in their new lab, the two are staring each other down. he remembers it well, the smell of freshly painted walls, the sound of Hermann's cane clicking as he walked into the room not even a minute after Newt had. The thought of working so closely with the man he had only met in person once before, a meeting that had ended in a flipped table (him) and a thrown chair (Hermann), had been thrilling and frighting. He had loved every minute of it. It was strange remembering it now, in two perspectives. The thrill of the argument from two different minds. Twin feelings of anger.

The second frame showed him and Hermann seated alone in an empty cafeteria. He remembered that as well. The picture must have been from about five years into the program. It had been a long day, right after a Kaiju attack. The two hadn't finished working until at least three am. Hermann sat at the table mug of tea next to his hand as he scribbled down a theory that Newt, seated on the table next to him; arms flailing wildly as he talked, had been rambling about. Even back in the beginning they hadn't really ever stopped working.

"We figured you'd like a few in your room."

"Why do i even have a room?" The room looked like one that he would have, sure it lacked the small stuff that would show it was his. Glancing over at the bead he realized that even that wasn't really all true. A small grey and blue stuffed Kaiju sat nestled into his pillows.

Noticing his glance Vanessa smiled. "A gift, one we've had for a while, i decided to put it in here as a surprise, i found it a few years ago at a small thrift store."

"That's...that's nice, but why do i have a room here, there's no way you set this up in a few hours."

"True, this room has been waiting for you for the last few years actually."

"What?"

"Well after ten odd years of knowing you as we do, you can be considered family, this room would have been yours for when we kidnapped you for the holidays."

He heard a but at the end of that "But?"

"But after Hermann told me about your drift together, I had been planning to ask if you wanted to move in with us, i just never had the chance."

"... I don't know what to say..."

"You don't have to choose yet, just think of your stay with us as a trial period."


	2. Newt Do Not Just Wander Off And Booze It Up With Strangers

That night after dinner Newt lay in bed unable to sleep. Dinner hadn't been as awkward as Newt had figured it would be. Him and Hermann bickering over old arguments. Vanesa cutting in to ask questions. It was peaceful and nice. It left him feeling something he hadn't since the war started. He felt at home.

That unfortunately didn't stop insomnia. He's been staring at the ceiling for the past hour or two. He glanced over at the clock.

3:12 

He groaned and rolled out of bed. Pulling his pants on and digging a clean shirt out of the suitcase sitting open by the dresser. He slipped out of his room, down the stairs; slipping his shoes on, on his way out of the house. closing the door behind him without a sound

He didn't think about leaving a note, he'd be home before anyone woke up anyway. He'd just take a walk around the neighborhood really quick. Something he did every time he moved to a new apartment. It was habit. He liked to check out the night life of his new digs.

He wandered slowly down the sidewalk of the nice suburb that Hermann had posted up in. The houses were varying colored versions of the same basic layout. As he rounded the corner something caught his eye. He stopped dead.

"No way!" He exclaimed under his breath.  
  
A young woman with swirling blue tattoos stood on the porch of a small grey house. Even from there he could make out Reckoner on her arm.

She looked over and saw him staring.

"Problem?" She asked in a thick German accent.

"Hell no, just checking out the sweet ink."

She looked at him skeptically for a moment before grinning. "You want a beer?"

\-------------------------

When Hermann woke up at 5:09am. A habit from his PPDC days. He wandered downstairs to find his wife seated at the kitchen table with a cup of tea in her hands, Her eyes were rimmed red like she'd been crying.

"What's wrong?" He asked immediately.

"He's gone. I scared him away." She looked up at him with a shaky frown.

"what do you mean?"

"I told him we wanted him to move in permanently. it was too soon, too much." She confessed sullenly.

"Newton's gone?" He asked. He didn't feel any negative emotions from the other man. Just a sluggish flutter of contentment. He would have felt if the man was in a panic.

"Well his things are here, but he's not. His door was open so i peeked in. He wasn't there. I looked all over the house for him."

"Vanessa, i doubt he would leave without his things. I'm sure he'll be back." He tries to reassure her, but a cruel thought bubbles up in his own mind. 'It wouldn't be the first time he's walked off.'. It's a cruel thought and he knows that. The only time Newton's walked off without telling anyone was during the start of the Wall of Life protests. When he'd been caught by the Marshal he'd been asked not to go back, for image reasons. Couldn't have one of their lead scientist seen making a public enemy of himself. Newton had been so angry he just turned right around and left the Shatterdome without a word to anyone for days. But he Had come back.

He acted like nothing had happened. Greeted Hermann with a bright smile and went right to work. Hermann know's now where he'd been. Getting another tattoo done on his back. He'd been sneaking out at night to a seedy tattoo parlor.

He glances at the kitchen door debating if he should go look around the neighborhood for him when the sound of the doorbell echos through the house.

"I'll get it." He say's placing a hand on Vanessa's shoulders when she tries to stand.

When he opens the door his immediate urge is to slam it shut (Something he's 100% sure is one of newton's impulse's). A young woman stands there looking absolutely like a clone of his lab partner. Her arms are covered in bright luminescent tattoo's of Kaiju. Her dirty blonde hair is shaved on both sides, leaving the middle to look a bit like a horses mane as it runs down her back. multiple piercings adorn her face and ears.

"May i help you?" He asks as politely as he can.

"Is he yours?" She asks pointing behind her. When he looks past her he spies Newton splayed out on his lawn.

"Yes, where did you find him?" He's ready to apologize on his friends behalf when she smiles at him.

"He found me actually."

"He didn't break into your house did he?" It didn't sound like something Newton would do. Well not something he would do without cause to do so.

"No man, i invited him in for a beer. he's pretty cool." She says as he steps past her to get closer to Newton.

"He's drunk?" he asks looking behind at the girl. She shrugs and moves towards the gate.

"Sorry for keeping him." She smiles and slips out of the gate.

Hermann looks down at the man. A dreamy smile on Newton's face. His eyes are closed against the sun.

"Newton?"

"Newt." Is the immediate response.

"Newt, would you like to come inside instead of laying on our front lawn?" It was strange to think of his home being Newton's. It's strange in the way that it's not strange at all. It felt right. Normal.

"Hmm yeah, should probably do that." Newton mumbles.

"Are you going to?"

He doesn't answer the question. "I couldn't sleep." He says instead. Referring to why he was on the lawn in the first place.

"So you went and got drunk with the neighbors." he rolls his eye's.

"When i sleep i can still see it." He says. Opening his eyes and looking up at Hermann with a serious expression. Hermann know's what he's talking about. 

The Anteverse. 

It had probably kept Newton up more nights than not. Hermann's eyes flicked to the bandages. The after images burned into his mind were probably nothing compared to what was burned into Newton's. 

"Do you want some bacon and eggs?" He asks, not wanting to stay on the topic of the Anteverse. Had been trying to avoid the topic in his own mind since coming home. Newton's watching him with knowing eyes. He know's what Hermann is doing and isn't sure whether to be grateful or irritated. They would have to talk about it at some point but Newton did not want to be sober for that conversation.

"Bacon is good... real bacon right?" He asks and Hermann know's he's thinking of the fake stuff that had been served at the Shatterdome's when supplies had started to go. They may have had the good food in Hong Kong but real bacon was not one of the good things to grace their 'Dome.

"Yes real bacon."

"I'm in." He says. Rolling over he sways to his feet, using Hermann for a moment to steady himself. He looks at Hermann again and smiles. "Remember that time I got drunk and passed out standing against your chalkboard?"

"I try not to." He replies, leading the man back into the house.

"Man the Russians had the good stuff back then."

"They only shared with you because i let them." It was true. The night he'd gotten a text from Sasha had been an odd one. 'We can share booze with little Scientist yeah?' The text had read. He considered for a moment why she was asking him before sending 'please don't kill him.' back. He'd never asked why she'd asked him for permission to get Newton drunk. It hadn't seemed to matter. Now with Newton memories it was obvious to him. It hadn't been to Newton. Back then they had been constantly texting or calling when not near each other. The people around them had thought they were dating. The running joke had been that they were an old married couple. 

Hermann smiled at the thought.

"You had to give him permission to get drunk?" Vanessa asks. She's standing just inside the door. Still looking upset but trying to hide it. He sees the moment Newton notices the red rimmed eyes. The stiffening of his spine, the wrinkle between his eyes as he looks at her concerned, the sudden fluttering feeling of worry in the back of his head. He opens his mouth and Hermann know's he's going to ask if she's okay.

"Are you hungry?" He cut's in before Newton can talk. "I was going to make eggs and bacon for breakfast."

"Yes that would be lovely." She smiles rubbing her belly.  

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Not sure when the next update is gonna be. my nibling is coming up from texas and i will be spending all my free time with her adorableness.


	3. Our brains stitched themselves to each other.

_ He stared at the luminescent monster towering stories above his head. Watched it's head lower and dig into the cement as it reached out to him with- with- he wasn't sure what it was. A tentacle? Tongue? _

_ God he'd wanted to take it apart. Cut it open and see what was inside, how it worked, what it was. Not anymore. _

_ It didn't matter. What mattered was the clear dizzying thought that if he offered himself to Them. The precursors. He would save these peoples lives. He wasn't sure what they wanted with him. To question him? To tear him apart? _

_ He reaches out to touch the appendage when someone grabs his hand. _

_ "Stop." Hermann says. _

_ That wasn't right. Hermann wasn't supposed to be there. The scene around him stops. Like a paused movie. _

_ "What's going on?" Newt asks. Hermann's standing next to him, in his grandpa pajama's. Sans cane. _

_ "You're- no. We're. We're dreaming." _

_ "How do you know?" _

_ Hermann points down at their clothes. "I don't think we fought Kaiju in our pajamas." _

_ "I don't know man, it was a pretty crazy couple of days." He says, his joke falling flat. "If this is a dream... who's dream is it?" _

_ "I'm not sure. It could be both of ours." _

_ "Shared dreams. A drift side effect?" He proposes. Their brains did kinda stitch themselves back together and maybe swapped a few threads along the way, stitching them to each other as well. _

_ Hermann nods, more to Newt's inner monologue than to what he said, looking around the Anti-Kaiju shelter with a frown. _

_ "This is really where you were." It's not a question. He has the memories himself. He knows what happened. "You were really prepared to give yourself to them." He looks a little sick at the thought. _

_ "I didn't really have a choice." Newt muttered looking up at Otachi. _

_ And as if the words were the play button the scene starts up again. _

_ The tongue reaches for him, scenting the air around him. Sensing the people who try to get further away. The tongue getting closer makes him flinch. Hermann's hand squeezes his. Reminding him that it was a dream. He wasn't there. Otachi was dead. He can feel Hermann's pulse racing as fast as his own. This may have been a dream, but it had happened. And there was, imaginary or not, a Kaiju about to eat him. _

_ And like before the sound of Gypsy's fog horn makes it pause inches from Newt. mere inches from wrapping around him and taking it's prize back to it's masters. _

_ "I think i'm going to be sick." They say in unison. _ The dream world is torn away.

Newt sits up in bed panting. Nausea rolls in is stomach. He shakily stumbles out of bed, barely making it to the bathroom before he throws up. He doesn't know how long he sit's there on the bathroom floor. Long enough for a tired sounding Vanessa to come knocking.

"Newt are you okay?" She asks through a yawn. He feels bad that she's awake so early.

"Yeah." He rasps. He doesn't sound convincing even to himself. Without knocking again Vanessa opens the bathroom door. She looks as tired as she sounded.

"You don't look okay." she says waddling in closer to him.

He rubs at his eyes, wiping away the last of his tears. "I'm fine. It was just a nightmare."

"Hermann got sick too."

"Oh..." He doesn't know what to say. Or if there even was anything to say.

"Let's go back to bed." She smiles down at him. He climbs to his feet. Flushing the toilet he follows her out of the bathroom and back to his room.

"Sorry for waking you." He he says quietly, rubbing at the back of his head.

"Don't apologize, it must be hard for you two, with everything you've been through." She leans down a bit and places a small kiss on his forehead. "Goodnight Newt."

He watches her waddle back to her room before he whispers "Goodnight."

The next morning Newt refuses to talk about the nightmare. He doesn't want to think about it. And thankfully it seemed, neither did Hermann.

The only one who wanted to talk about it politely dropped the subject after watching Newt rush to the bathroom to throw up, again.

"We're going to have to talk about it boy's." Vanessa says quietly. Looking between the two men at the table. "Sooner or later. It can't be healthy keeping it to yourselves, and i know neither of you are going to want to talk to a professional."

"It's... hard to even think about. Our minds had to tear themselves apart and knit themselves back together to even attempt to understand what we saw in the Anteverse." Newt explains slowly. "That itself is hard to get my head around. So i'm not sure if i'll ever be able to talk about it without freaking out."

 

 


	4. Ada?

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> they have a moment in the living room with baby names

Four weeks into it and Vanessa could tell Newt was settling in nicely. True there were a few hang ups. The arguments with Hermann. The insomnia that had him up three nights out of the week. The nightmares. But they were working on those.

One thing had been bugging her. In the entire time Newt had been here, he'd not once ask to touch her belly. She also knew he secretly loved children. He didn't hide it well cooing at every child and baby he saw when they went out.

"I know your dying to do it, so go ahead." Vanessa says startling Newt. They were lounging in the sitting room, having a quiet afternoon.

"Do what?" He asks pretending innocence. He's been fidgeting for an hour. glancing at Vanessa's extruding belly, then back to his book.

"Newt, you can touch my belly, i promise i won't bite." She looks sly when she add's "Though i can't say the same for Hermann. He scared this poor woman in the store a month ago."

"She would not cease her touching, and i saw it was making you uncomfortable." Hermann defends from his spot in the chair by the window. Newton laughs and smirks.

"I remember this one time he swatted at this girl with his cane because she wouldn't quit touching my tattoos and muttering about how cool they were." he laughs mimicking the way the girl had been running her fingers over his arm in a trance like haze.

"You asked her to stop twice." Hermann grumbled.

"She was extremely drunk man. it was bound to happen, we were at that bone slum bar after all."

"I want to hear more about this bar," Vanessa said, laughing at Hermann's grumbled 'no you really don't' "But first things first, Newt come over here and touch my belly."

Slowly Newton slides out of the chair he had posted up in across from Hermann and makes his way to the love seat Vanessa is lounging in. He sits on the floor next to her. With one last look at her for approval he grins and places his hand on her abdomen.

For a moment he doesn't feel anything, nearly disappointed he's about to take his hand back when he feels a strong kick.

"Whoa!" He breaths the same time Vanessa lets out a pained sigh. "You okay?"

"Yes Newt, she's just a little excited to meet you." She smiles down at him. 

"Have you guy's given her a name yet?" Newton asks.

"We were thinking Hedda." Vanessa says.

"What about Ada, like the first coder." Newt throws out.

"I like that." Hermann says, looking at them over his laptop.

"Me too, i think we should adopt the idea." Vanessa says with a warm smile. Patting the top of Newton's head with the hand not rubbing her belly.

"I completely agree."

Newton stares at them gaping. "W-wait are you two serious?"

Vanessa shrugs, rubbing her hand through his hair absentmindedly. "It's a lovely name." 

"It has a wonderful history." Hermann agree's.

Newton looks from one to the other speechless. His chest feel's tight. "Your... going to use it?"

"What? It's a wonderful name, thank you."

Vanessa smiles over Newton's head at her husband. 

Yes, this man is already a wonderful addition to their family.


End file.
